Paging-capable devices are used to provide a user with a wide range of information. As used herein, a "paging-capable device" refers to a device that can receive information which is broadcast from a paging system. "Paging-capable devices" include, but are not limited to, pagers and portable computing devices (such as personal data assistants, calculators, electronic notebooks, calendars/electronic schedulers, and electronic information managers) that can receive information from an information source via standard page transmissions. When the paging-capable device receives information, it alerts the user in a way to get his attention. For example, a paging-capable device can emit an audible tone (e.g., a beeping sound) or can vibrate against the user's body.
The most common form of information is telephone paging codes sent through a phone network. An information sender (e.g., another person) typically enters his telephone number on a touch-tone keypad of a telephone. The user's paging-capable device (typically a pager) automatically receives the paging codes when they are sent by the other person and alerts the user to the incoming information. In this way, the user automatically receives information that is individually broadcast to him.
Additionally, the user can receive information that is broadcast to a group of subscribers. For example, a user can subscribe to a service in an information source (such as a news service on the Internet) which provides a particular type of information to a subscriber's paging-capable device. As with paging codes, the paging-capable device receives the information when the information source chooses to send it. When the information is received from the information source, the paging-capable device alerts the user.
Because the user has no control over when the information source sends information, incoming-information alerts can disturb the user at inconvenient times. Beyond merely annoying a user, frequent alerts can disrupt important meetings and generally lower productivity. This problem is aggravated by the increase in the number of information sources available (on the Internet, for example) and in the volume of available information from the sources. To avoid this problem, some users disable their paging-capable devices. While disabling the device prevents an alert, it also prevents important information, which may not be later retrievable, from reaching the user.
In addition to not having control over when information is received by the paging-capable device, the user typically has no control over what particular information is sent. Although a user can select a particular information source from which to receive information, he typically cannot select the particular information the source sends. Without this control, the user must spend time browsing through the entire set of information broadcast from the source until he finds the information of interest. Additionally, with multiple information sources, the volume of information automatically sent to the paging-capable device may exceed the memory capacity of the device, preventing additional, possibly more important, information from being received.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,555,446 and 4,812,843 disclose systems in which users have limited control over what information is sent and when it is sent. The system of the '446 patent allows a user to transmit an information request to a base station by entering a predetermined code via switches on a paging device. In that system, the paging device used to send the request is the same device that receives the requested information. If the user cannot remember or does not know the predetermined code for the information he desires to receive, he will not be able to request the information.
With the system of the '843 patent, a phone or a computer is used to enter predetermined codes to request information. As with the system of the '446 patent, if the user forgets the codes or does not have a list of codes nearby, he will not be able to make his request. In that system, before the user receives the requested information, the information is filtered by a third party--a human operator interprets the information and determines what information will be accessible to the user. In the systems of both the '446 and '843 patents, the information that the user can request is information that is addressed to and/or accessible by more than one user.
There is a need, therefore, to provide a system and method for paging-capable devices that overcome the problems described above.